Feaurax's eyes rolled in their sockets a bit before centering and the lids fluttering open. The popping of joints and the low groan that resulted from him sitting up should have alerted his captor and her cohort to his coming to, but didn't.

The scene he was presented with was utterly alien to him. Two vaguely animal-shaped beings were conversing not far from him, though he only caught the tail end of their discussion.

"... and then it just... I don't know... was there..." Twilight finished explaining to Fluttershy, who sat on her couch, eyes wide and looking directly at him.

"Um... hello..." Feaurax said quietly, causing the lavender mare to jump and wheel around to face him. "Er, where... exactly am I..." he inquired.

"Ponyville," came the soft-spoken reply from Fluttershy. "Um... Your mental faculties seem to be in order, I guess. Have you forgotten anything?"

"That cube! I never should have touched it..." Feaurax nearly shouted, shooting up into a standing position, startling the two mares. He got the message and took it down an octave... or four. "Oh, sorry. Did I scare you? This is... this is completely different from what I'm used to..." He put his head in his hands. "I don't think so. I have a headache that would make a psychic have nightmares, but all in all I think I made it okay." His head suddenly shot back up, causing the ponies to flinch again. "Wait. How are you communicating at all? Let alone in a language similar enough to my own that I can understand you and vice-versa?"

"Coincidence?" Twilight offered.

"Probably... or maybe I hit the ground harder than I thought..." he trailed off, rubbing his temples. "I just wish this pounding in my head would go away..."

"Oh. Well, why didn't you just say so?" the purple mare flared her horn, his headache was gone.

"Putting aside the fact that I just did..."

"How did you do that?" Fluttershy finished his sentence. "I thought you didn't know any medical magic? Or that it didn't exist? Or something like that?..."

"I hardly think it qualifies as medicinal, it cures the symptoms rather than the ailment."

"That's what ninety-nine percent of medicine is, Twilight. Usually the problem fixes itself, medicine is just meant to let you function more easily until your issues are fixed."

"Well, the official definition is --"

"Completely wrong, Twilight." Fluttershy interrupted, her voice more firm than usual. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you like that. That was very rude of me." She shrunk into herself again.

"Moving on, what exactly are you?" Twilight questioned, moving a little closer to the man, who backed a little further away in response.

"Male, Isparian, soon-to-be Master Mage."

"Master... Mage?"

"Basically I'm among the toughest of the tough as far as mages go..." He trailed off, glancing at his unimpressive frame. "... magically speaking anyway. My body is a great example of what happens when your only exercise is lugging books around. I mean, I'm not fat, but I'm not at all physically impressive. Not that I really need to be. I know magicks that would tear most people in half." This wasn't him bragging. This was him stating fact. Those 'Whirling Blades' of his bucking hurt like nothing else. But you won't feel it for long, especially missing the lower half of your body.

He wasn't necessarily proud of this knowledge, but he had obtained it through legitimate means, that much he could say for it.

"You know magic?!" Twilight perked up, getting in his face with an eager expression on hers.

"Umm... yeah. The ancient Empyrean branch, schools of the Right and Left Hands?" He asked nervously, slowly backing his face away from that of the purple mare. She didn't get the hint, closing the distance equally as slowly, smile never leaving her face. "Honestly, I've never understood the names of the schools. I've always called them what everyone else did, meaning war magic, life magic, creature enchantment, item enchantment... and the rather new addition, void magic. Never liked that, anyway, seems too unnatural even as magic goes, to me. Sadly it seems a lot more went into how to murder your opponent more and more brutally than actually trying to help people, but what is directly beneficial to yourself and others is more flexible than it looks." Twilight made a mental note. Whatever these 'Isparians' are, they sound like a very violent group that may have only managed to gain access to magic by accident. Twilight backed away, thinking.

A crash and a thump announced a new arrival to Fluttershy's abode. Fluttershy sighed and muttered under her breath, something about "the third time this week."

"Well, Egghead, looks like you've made a new friend." A cyan-colored mare rose up, rubbing her head, which was adorned with a mane of all the colors of the rainbow. A quick glance confirmed that her tail was also colored this way, and Feaurax wondered just what sort of genetic backflips were needed to accomplish something like that. Twilight's eye twitched at the nickname, but no other emotion was betrayed by her face.

"What is it, Rainbow Dash?"

"Well, I was flying around when I saw some nasty damage to your lawn. I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"That's... surprisingly sweet of you, Dash. But I'm pretty sure I know the real reason behind your trying to find me -- you wanted to see what caused the damage, didn't you?"

"... Just a little bit..."

"Well, look no further. I'm pretty sure it was me." Feaurax sheepishly admitted.

"Wait, that was you? Dude, if you did that on purpose..." She trailed off, face contorting angrily. Feaurax braced for impact. He was not prepared for a physical confrontation.

"Back off, Dash. I'm pretty sure he had no say in the matter. He was not the force, only the tool." Twilight defended. "One second, I was outside enjoying some fresh air. The next, this guy flashed into existence and came hurtling towards my lawn at a speed that... probably would've broken your neck, if you'd have hit the ground head on like he did."

"So now you're saying that he's tougher than me! Well then, tough guy, let's go!" Dash shifted into a combative position, wings splayed out beside her. Feaurax braced even harder.

"Now now, let's not get violent..." Fluttershy tried to speak over Dash's growling, but went unheard.

"Dash, calm down! You're scaring the specimen!" Twilight nearly shouted. Rainbow Dash did not respond, only turning to glare at her as well. It became a battle of wills as neither side was willing to back down, the two mares staring each other down.

"If you're going to kill each other, please don't do it on my carpet..." Fluttershy squeaked suddenly, causing all hostilities to immediately cease and everyone to turn their attention toward her. "I just had that cleaned last week... do you know how hard it is to get pony blood out of a carpet? I don't want to find out..."

"What makes you think we're going to kill each other?" Twilight asked, expression bewildered.

"Yeah, Fluttershy, what gives? You really think that low of us?" Dash demanded, genuinely offended.

"Uh, in her defense, you were kind of at each other's throats for a minute there..." Feaurax pointed out.

"You keep quiet! You have no stake in this!" Dash rounded on him, pointing her hoof accusingly.

Feaurax's eyes widened. He had had enough of this mare and her obvious predilection towards those of her own species. "The hell I don't! You mean to say that I have no stake in my own fate? One that you seem so intent upon ending prematurely, might I add?" Feaurax burst, finally growing a pair.

Rainbow Dash was taken aback. "Wait, ending your... you think that I'd... kill you? Over something as stupid as a messed up lawn?"

"Well, it certainly sounded like it!"

"No. I wouldn't. Just... no. Maybe buck you up a bit, but I wouldn't even dream in my most sadistic state of killing somepony, especially over something so... irrelevant. I mean, it's not even my lawn!" Dash calmed, sitting on the floor. "So, Guy Egghead, what's your story, anyway? "

"He was just going to tell us. Weren't you, what's-your-face?" Twilight prompted.

"Dear Celestia, you don't even know its name? This is precious!" Dash fell to the floor, laughing her blue flank off.

"Kind of had more pressing concerns, Dash..."

"Like what? Weirding the poor thing out? Celestia's sake, Twilight, it was terrified!"

"Well, it didn't say no!"

"Like I said, it was terrified!"

Feaurax broke up the argument. "Um... it's Feaurax." He said quietly. "My name is Feaurax." He said a little louder.

"Pleased to meet you, Feaurax. I'm Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends Rainbow Dash," she gestured to the light blue pegasus that she had been arguing with mere seconds before, "And Fluttershy." she gestured to the cream-colored pegasus. "Welcome to Equestria. It looks like we'll be your guides. And the others will be too, I'm sure." She continued to prattle on. "Once everypony gets around, I imagine our next move will be to take you to Princess Celestia. If anypony out there knows what to do for you, it'll be her."

"Not overly fond of the idea of meeting other people - er, that is, ponies - so soon. Then again, I never was a people person." He launched off into an abridged account of recent events, choosing to omit his concerns about his mentor for now. "... And then I picked it up to get a better look at it, because it looked like a piece of a portal pedestal. I wasn't thinking, obviously, that it would send me here. Obviously the thing held some measure of its old enchantment, otherwise it couldn't have done what it did. I'm still not sure that if I were to use my portal recall spells that I would find myself back home, but I guess it can't hurt to try." He stood up suddenly, walking to the center of the sitting room for some breathing room. He took up a stance that, while it looked admittedly less goofy than Asheron's old-fashioned one, still garnered some ridicule and snark when used around the general populace ("Fear not, for our hero is going to dance the threatening hordes of Olthoi away!"). His expression, serious, stopped any ridicule that was about to come his way. "Shurov Thiloi!" he uttered, cursing when the spell, rather than fizzling out, simply didn't work. Standard recall spells wouldn't work, it seemed. "Shurov Sith!" he said a little louder, utilizing a spell of his own fashion that was meant to teleport him directly to Asheron's castle/sanctuary/Academy, but in reality dropped the caster off several feet above the destination. Not technically a failure, but something only to be used as a last resort, at any rate. It fizzled out. He tried again. It fizzled out again. He sighed and sat back down.

"What is it that you're trying to do?" Twilight asked.

"Cast my recall spells - that is, spells that take me back to someplace in particular, but I imagine they aren't working either because I'm in another world, and am therefore not tied to those portals anymore. Another possibility is that Asheron's destroying of the portals rendered the recall spells unusable too."

"In any case, we should take you to Princess Celestia. Let's wait a bit and see if anypony else shows up, so we can hopefully leave soon with everypony accounted for."

"It's settled then? We're taking him to her?" Dash spoke up.

"Yes, Dash, for the last time, we are taking him to see Princess Celestia. I just hope she has an idea of what to do." Next Chapter: Take Me To Your Leader Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 59 Minutes